Names

Menounos the ring leader

Maria Menounos (battling Alicia Fox) jumped into the ring as host of “Monday Night RAW.’’ (World Wrestling Entertainment)

By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein

Globe Staff / October 14, 2009

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As a kid growing up in Medford, Maria Menounos sometimes watched professional wrestling with her dad. It was like a soap opera, but instead of Luke and Laura, the wild-eyed characters were named “Ravishing’’ Rick Rude, Randy “Macho Man’’ Savage, and Brutus “The Barber’’ Beefcake. “My mother got so mad at us for watching it,’’ she said yesterday, “but I got sucked into the story lines.’’ WWE chairman Vince McMahon must have had an inkling when he invited Menounos and her “Access Hollywood’’ colleague Nancy O’Dell to host this week’s “Monday Night RAW.’’ Menounos jumped at the chance, but with a request: She wanted to wrestle. (And promote her next movie, “Serial Buddies.’’) “They agreed,’’ Maria told us yesterday, “so I took six training sessions and learned the different moves - the leg drop, the arm drag, the sunset flip.’’ The throwdown was televised live Monday night, and Menounos was dressed appropriately: Black spandex pants and a bikini top emblazoned with the Greek flag. (The evening’s featured acts were Randy Orton, West Newbury’s own John Cena, and Chris Jericho.) Menounos was teamed with wrestlers Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly against “The Glamazon’’ Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, and Rosa Mendes. Believe it or not, Maria emerged victorious. “I kind of smashed my tailbone on that flip, but I got some ice on it and I’m fine,’’ she said. “I told Vince I want to come back with (wrestler) Maria Kanellis as ‘The Golden Greeks’ and come out to ‘Zorba the Greek’ music.’’

She stands up for Medford

Menounos, by the way, was disappointed to hear that a new book about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg disses Medford. (Bloomberg grew up in Medford.) The book by former New York Times staffer Joyce Purnick characterizes the city as “quiet and dull’’ and unfriendly to Jews. And it quotes another famous Medford native, author Paul Theroux, saying, “I thought it would be death to stay there, that I would just be swallowed up. It was all right to grow up there, but to stay there? Fatal.’’ Nonsense, says Menounos. “I think some people let things go to their heads a little,’’ she said. “People should be proud of where they came from.’’

Public spat continues

Their romance is over, but the public relations war between Todd English and Erica Wang has just begun. A day after English told us he’d been beaten up by his former fiancee, Wang called us and read a one-sentence statement.

“We both knew that neither of our parents approved of this marriage for a very long time, but that does not explain why he’s now making up awful things about me,’’ said Wang, who refused to answer questions.

The call was arranged by a confidant of the would-be bride, who’s been handling her many media requests but wouldn’t allow his name to be used. Apparently intent on keeping her feud with the famous foodie alive, Wang was in talks to appear on the “Today’’ show yesterday, he said.

English and Wang, who’d dated for two years, were set to get married Oct. 3 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. But English disappeared several days before the wedding, finally calling Wang the day of the ceremony to cancel. Wang proceeded without the groom, partying on her own with 150 or so guests.

The rep said there’s no excuse for canceling a wedding at the last minute.

“She is blameless,’’ he said. “[English’s] handlers can’t defend what he did, so they’ve come up with the two things people always say about women: She’s crazy and greedy.’’

Wang, who is 16 years younger than the 49-year-old English, met the chef at one of his restaurants, and later quit her job as a concierge at the Peninsula Hotel in New York to spend more time with him.

A longtime friend of the chef’s told us yesterday that he and others, including the restaurateur’s own mother, tried several times to talk English out of the marriage. (English has three children - Oliver, 19, Isabelle, 16, and Simon, 13 - with his ex-wife, Olivia.)

English had told friends and family that Wang had a fierce temper and sometimes hit him, including once with his own watch, opening a cut around his eye. One friend told us he warned English that the volatile relationship could put his business empire in jeopardy. Others were worried about Wang’s spending habits, citing $35,000 charges at Chanel and a $6,000 purchase at Neiman Marcus a few days after the wedding was canceled.

“They were in love,’’ said Wang’s rep. “Nobody is suggesting they were not in love.’’ That’s true. Though he has a reputation as a lothario, English told us he did love Wang. “But,’’ he said, “I can see this is the best thing for the both of us.’’

The artful dodger

Forget singing in the rain, Matt Damon was running in the rain while shooting “The Adjustment Bureau’’ in New York. The Cambridge-bred actor plays a politician in the sci-fi romance costarring John Krasinski’s fiancee, Emily Blunt. The movie, about a pol’s relationship with a mysterious ballerina, also includes a cameo by Medford native and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who plays himself.

The right stuff

Pats owner Myra Kraft and Cradles to Crayons CEO Lynn Margherio joined several Patriots wives yesterday at the Quincy-based organization. The group worked at the nonprofit’s “Giving Factory’’ sorting clothes and creating personalized packages for needy kids.

Around town

Cascada, the German eurodance group fronted by Natalie Horler, had them on their feet this weekend at Rain. Taking the stage at the Malden club, the group got the crowd going with its UK hit “Evacuate the Dancefloor.’’ Horler’s sidekicks in Cascada are producers DJ Manian and Yanou. . . . Sox captain Jason Varitek and former Fenway fave Bill Mueller stopped into Sonsie the other night to have a drink with a few friends. . . . The cast and crew for the Kevin James film “The Zookeeper’’ filmed yesterday in the Aujourd’hui Event Space at Four Seasons.

Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.